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Market Overview |
Written by ActionForex.com |
Mar 20 10 16:37 GMT |
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Euro was sold off sharply last week on the drama of Greece bailout. Just as markets thought there's already an agreement reached between Eurozone countries on the way to provide financial aid to Greece, Germany came out and said that it's illegal to support such a plan and called for IMF's involvement. Greek Prime Minister Papandreou then set a deadline for EU leaders to craft a financial-aid mechanism for his nation by their March 25-26 summit in Brussels. EC President Barroso then said that immediate action is needed to help Greece and further complicated the matter by suggesting a "system of co-ordinated bilateral loans" from European partners. From every angle, investors are clearly dissatisfied with the ongoing uncertainty on the Greece situation and dumped the common currency across the board. We'd talking about -238 pips fall in EUR/USD and -218 pips fall in EUR/JPY. More importantly, EUR/CAD dropped to a 27 month low of 1.3629 while EUR/AUD tumbled to record low of 1.4718. Euro even failed to gain against the weak pound. |
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Market Overview |
Written by ActionForex.com |
Mar 19 10 12:55 GMT |
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Canadian dollar surges sharply today, boosted by stronger than expected inflation as well as retail sales. Headline CPI moderated from 1.9% yoy to 1.6% yoy in February, above expectation of 1.4% yoy. More importantly core CPI surprised the markets by accelerating from 2.0% to 2.1%. While BoC reiterated the conditional commitment to keep rates unchanged at 0.5% till of Q2, the data triggered speculation that BoC would be forced to normalize rates sooner than expected. The Loonie is additionally boosted by stronger than expected retail sales which rose 1.8% mom in January with ex-auto sales up 0.7%. |
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Market Overview |
Written by ActionForex.com |
Mar 19 10 07:51 GMT |
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Dollar is steady in Asia after yesterday's extended rebound on speculation of another discount rate hike from Fed before next meeting on April 28. Meanwhile, Euro is consolidating some of the sharp losses on uncertainty over Greece as well as the selloff against Swiss Franc. The Franc was bid sharply high overnight after comments from SNB Danthine that the bank cannot prevent Franc's appreciation indefinitely. There are some fresh sellings on sterling in early European session as its recovery lost momentum. Commodities are staying in tight range as crude oil continues to struggle to take out near term resistance of 83.16 while gold also consolidates this week's gain at around 1120 level. |
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Market Overview |
Written by ActionForex.com |
Mar 18 10 14:09 GMT |
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Euro remains pressured by the uncertain on who will provide financial aids to Greece to resolve its debt problems. There are rumors that the situation has become increasingly pessimistic for concrete assistance at next EU summit on March 25 and Greece may eventually need to seek IMF assistance during Easter. Greece Prime Minister Papandreou set a one-week deadline for EU to craft the mechanism for the financial aid and said he may turn to IMF otherwise. German Chancellor Merkel's chief finance spokesman Meister said yesterday that "nobody apart from the IMF" has the instruments to push for Greece to restore its "capital-markets access" and attempting a Greek rescue without the IMF "would be a very daring experiment." The comments signaled a rift with Merkel and European leaders ECB Trichet, Luxembourg's Jean-Claude Juncker and France's Sarkozy. Also, it's believed there are now at least three other Eurozone nations that are open to the idea of calling the IMF if needed, including Finland, the Netherlands and Italy. |
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Market Overview |
Written by ActionForex.com |
Mar 18 10 06:48 GMT |
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Euro is sold off sharply and recent developments suggest that European Union is split over who should provide the financial aids to Greece. German Chancellor Merkel's chief finance spokesman Meister said that "nobody apart from the IMF" has the instruments to push for Greece to restore its "capital-markets access" and attempting a Greek rescue without the IMF "would be a very daring experiment." The comments signaled a rift with Merkel and European leaders ECB Trichet, Luxembourg's Jean-Claude Juncker and France's Sarkozy. Also, it's believed there are now at least three other Eurozone nations that are open to the idea of calling the IMF if needed, including Finland, the Netherlands and Italy. EUR/USD is sharply below yesterday;s high of 1.3817 and is trading at around 1.3680 region while EUR/JPY failed 125 level and is back at 123.30. EUR/CHF also extended recent down trend and dived to 1.4460 level. |
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Market Overview |
Written by ActionForex.com |
Mar 17 10 13:16 GMT |
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Sterling rockets higher today, boosted by stronger than expected job market data. Claimant count unexpected dropped -32.3k in February versus expected rise of 8.2k. Claimant count rate also dropped from 5.0% to 4.9%. Unemployment was unchanged at 7.8% versus consensus of 7.9%. The BOE minutes unveiled that MPC members voted unanimously on March 4 to keep the policy rate unchanged at 0.5% and to maintain the asset purchase program at 200B pound. While growth outlook remained mixed, policymakers raised concerns over the overshooting inflation. More in BOE voted 9-0 to Stay Status Quo, Sterling Rallied as Jobless Claims Reduced Unexpectedly |
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Market Overview |
Written by ActionForex.com |
Mar 17 10 06:59 GMT |
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Dollar and yen are broadly lower as risk appetite is further boosted by a dovish FOMC statement as well as expansion of quantitative easing from Bank of Japan. S&P 500 made fresh 52 week high at 1160.28 before closing up nearly 9 pts at 1159.46. Japan Nikkei 225 also rose 1.17% to close at 10846.98. Crude oil staged strong rebound overnight and is now back trading above 82 level while gold also recovered back to above 1126.9. Dollar index dipped further to as low as 79.62 and the greenback is soft against most major currencies. |
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Market Overview |
Written by ActionForex.com |
Mar 16 10 12:55 GMT |
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Risk appetite is given a lift today led by banks, as EU failed to resolve a row over new rules to control hedge funds. The vote was delayed for couple more months in a reprieve for UK, which fears that too-tight regulation could drive the industry from London. Also, Greece concerns eased a bit after EU finance ministers said a blueprint for financial help was laid down. The exact form for assistance is still unknown but it could be some form of bilateral loans. The emergency loan would be provided if Greece's plan for EUR 4.8b cut in deficit fails. |
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Market Overview |
Written by ActionForex.com |
Mar 16 10 06:48 GMT |
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Euro was sharply lower overnight as it's not likely to have a detailed rescue package for Greece as the two-day summit of Euro Zone finance ministers conclude. EU FMs are expected to laid the ground work on a mechanism that would allow them to help Greece financially if needed. As Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker said yesterday, technical arrangements would be clarified to allow EU members to take coordinated actions. The aid would would probably come through governments pooling funds to extend direct loans to Greece but the trigger for the lending will probably be left open for the moment. While Euro recovers mildly against dollar, it's still under much pressure against Swiss Franc and yen. EUR/CHF dropped to 17 month low of 1.4506 yesterday and more downside would likely be seen going forward. markets will also look into German ZEW economic sentiments today which is expected to fall for the sixth month to 43.5 in March. |
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Market Overview |
Written by ActionForex.com |
Mar 15 10 13:18 GMT |
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Dollar and yen are mildly higher today as Moody's said risks are growing to the four largest AAA rated countries, including UK, US, France and Germany and they have moved "substantially" close to losing the top-notch rating. There are also some uncertainty on Euro as some European finance ministers ruled out aid for Greece for the moment. French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde said Greece "does not need help." German Finance ministers echoed the comment and said there's no need to present an aid plan at the moment. |
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Market Overview |
Written by ActionForex.com |
Mar 15 10 06:40 GMT |
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Dollar and yen recovers mildly as Asian market opens the week in a calm way. Asian stocks are mildly lower on profit taking after Friday's strong rally. Dollar is supported by weakness in crude oil which saw it back below 81 level. Also, traders are holding their bets ahead of a number of market moving events this week, which starts with manufacturing data and from US later today, and followed by FOMC rate decision, BoJ meeting as well as BoE minutes. |
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Market Overview |
Written by ActionForex.com |
Mar 13 10 19:27 GMT |
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The Japanese yen weakened broadly last week as solid economic data from China boosted investors' optimism for recovery and risk appetite. S&P 500 broke January's high of 1150 briefly before closing 1149.99. Nikkei also managed to rise 382 pts to close at 10751. There were also additional pressure to yen from speculation that Bank of Japan will expand monetary easing in the week's meeting. Swiss franc was surprisingly strong after event risk of Swiss National Bank meeting past. Canadian dollar also surged towards the end of the week on solid employment data from US. |
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Market Overview |
Written by ActionForex.com |
Mar 12 10 12:35 GMT |
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Canadian dollar surges in early US session after stronger than expected job report which showed 20.9k expansion versus expectation of 17.5k in February. Unemployment rate also fell to 8.2%. USD/CAD broke out of the five month range and dived through 1.02 level. On the other hand, Swiss franc is also sharply higher today as nothing special was triggered by yesterday's event risk of meeting. EUR/CHF drops through 1.46 level and is heading to February's low of 1.4577 where SNB intervened aggressively. |
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Market Overview |
Written by ActionForex.com |
Mar 12 10 05:42 GMT |
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Japanese yen weakens broadly today as speculations of imminent easing in BoJ policy continues to heat up. BoJ will hold a two-day policy meeting next week and the bank will make a decision on whether to expand the JPY 10T fund providing loans to bank to fight against deflation. In addition, Japan Finance Minister Naoto Kan said that if markets moves too "abruptly", the government will have the option of currency intervention as an "option". Yen would likely remain soft for a while till next week's BoJ announcement on March 17. |
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Market Overview |
Written by ActionForex.com |
Mar 11 10 12:50 GMT |
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Swiss Franc is mildly lower after SNB left three-month Libor target unchanged at 0.25 and reiterated its stance to"prevent excessive appreciation of the Swiss franc against the euro," which would "result in an undesired tightening of monetary conditions." Reactions to the announcement is mild so far. EUR/CHF spikes higher to 1.4628 after the release but was limited below 1.4635 minor resistance. We'd expect EUR/CHF to continue to craw low as dusts settle. |
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Market Overview |
Written by ActionForex.com |
Mar 11 10 07:11 GMT |
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Commodity currencies are slightly softer today on a couple of factors. Firstly, Australia job report missed expectations and showed only 0.4k growth in February. Unemployment rate also rose slightly from downwardly revised 5.2% to 5.3%. Secondly, RBNZ was somewhat more dovish then expected and hinted that interest could peak a lower level than previously thought as the bank starts the tightening cycle later this year. Thirdly, inflation reading in China jumped to a 16 month high of 2.7% yoy in February, raising concern of more monetary tightening. Dollar and yen are slightly firmer but after all, markets remain in familiar range. |
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Market Overview |
Written by ActionForex.com |
Mar 10 10 12:42 GMT |
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Sterling weakens broadly today on poor production data from UK. Industrial production dropped -0.4% mom, -1.5% yoy in January while manufacturing production dropped -0.9% mom and rose 0.2% yoy. Investors remain concerned with the momentum of recovery, fiscal deficit as well as political uncertainty in UK. BoE MPC member Adam Posen said that he hoped the bank is done with quantitative easing, but the comment offered little support to Sterling. |
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Market Overview |
Written by ActionForex.com |
Mar 10 10 06:03 GMT |
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Australian dollar rode on strong trade data from China and surged across the board in Asia today. Chinese exports rose an impressive 45.7% in February, well past expectations, after another strong jump of 86% in January. Imports rose 44.7% and trade surplus narrowed to $7.61b. The sustained strength in China's trade is a source of support for global economy. As the top buying of Australia's exports and strong demand of commodities, it was particularly important in keeping Australia away from recession during the economic crisis. |
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Market Overview |
Written by ActionForex.com |
Mar 09 10 12:39 GMT |
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Dollar rebounded strongly in European session as Gold was hit to as low as 1115 following comments from China. Yi Gang, director of China's State Administration of Foreign Exchange said that whole gold is "not a bad asset", the ability to have more investment in gold is limited by "a few factors". Yi said that return on gold in the past 30 years hasn't been great. Also, gold will unlikely be a primary investment for China's reserves. Gold extended the fall from last week's high of 1145.8 and dipped to as low as 1115.3 so far. Meanwhile, dollar index was given a boost to 80.80. |
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